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Early Modern Europe » Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment & French Revolution

Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment & French Revolution

By: Karl-Ludwig PoggemannThe Galileo Project
Hosted by Rice University, the Galileo Project provides information about Galileo’s family, career, and scientific inquiries. Included are a list of Galileo Project texts, an overview of the scientific community in the 16th and 17th centuries, Internet resources, a glossary, a bibliography, maps, a timeline, and even college projects.

Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Scientific Revolution / French Revolution
The Internet History Sourcebooks are wonderful collections of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts for educational use by Paul Halsall. The site and its documents are well organized and the breadth of materials is impressive. The Sourcebooks include: an Ancient History Sourcebook, a Medieval Sourcebook, and a Modern History Sourcebook. The Internet Modern History Sourcebook contains thousands of sources in dozens of categories. Subjects covered in the French Revolution section include Responses to the Revolution, Napoleon, and Napoleonic Wars. Subjects covered in the The Scientific Revolution include: Traditional Aristotelianism, New Medieval Analyses of motion, The Challenge: Astronomy in the 16th Century, Galileo Galilei: The Turning Point, Philosophy of Science: Induction/Deduction, The Creation of Classical Physics, New Medical Theories, and Scientific Institutions.

The Scientific Revolution
Professor Robert A. Hatch of the University of Florida has created a diverse and engaging introduction to the Scientific Revolution. He provides an overview and background to the Scientific Revolution, bibliographic essays, outlines, timelines, a glossary, biographies of major sources, well organized links to primary and secondary sources, manuscript and archive sources, and books on-line.

Catalog of the Scientific Community in the 16th and 17th Centuries
This site offers is a collection of 631 detailed biographies on members of the scientific community during the 16th and 17th centuries. The information was compiled by the late Richard S. Westfall, Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University. There are key facts about each individual and their contributions to science. The information is concise and very well organized.

Enlightenment Web Sites

World Cultures to 1500: The European Enlightenment
The Enlightenment is commonly dated to the middle of the eighteenth century and the activity of the philosophes, the French rationalist philosophers who fully articulated the values and consequences of Enlightenment thought. Professor Thomas Hooker argues that the Enlightenment should be dated to the new natural science of Isaac Newton, the social and political theories of thinkers such as Hobbes, the empirical psychology of John Locke, and the epistemological revolutions of Blaise Pascal and René Descartes. This online course created by Professor Hooker at Washington State University offers a terrific introduction to the Enlightenment. It provides clear and informative lecture notes, a photo gallery, links to relevant sites, and more. Topics include: Pre-Enlightenment Europe, The Case of England, Seventeenth Century Enlightenment Thought, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, The Scientific Revolution, The Eighteenth Century, The Philosophes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Women: Communities, Economies, and Opportunities, Absolute Monarchy and Enlightened Absolutism, and The Industrial Revolution of the Eighteenth Century. Resources include a Gallery of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Visual Culture, Enlightenment Reader, A Glossary of Enlightenment Terms and Concepts, and Internet Resources on the European Enlightenment.

French Revolution Web Sites

Exploring the French Revolution
This great site is a collaboration of the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University) and the American Social History Project (City University of New York). It serves as a useful and lively introduction to the French Revolution as well as a repository of many key documents from the era. Among its offerings are numerous essays, 245 images, 338 text documents, 13 songs, a timeline, a glossary, and short audiovisual lectures from leading historians. The site should help visitors understand the causes of the French Revolution and the reasons for its radicalization. Furthermore, there are commentaries on the French Revolution by Thomas Jefferson and other prominent Americans of the time. In all, Exploring the French Revolution is an engaging resource for learning and teaching about the French Revolution.

Europe in Retrospect: The French Revolution
This Britannia Internet Magazine sites provides useful information on the history of Europe during the past two hundred years and, in this chapter, the ideology of the French Revolution.

Napoleon
A visually appealing and informative PBS site on Napoleon. The site offers concise summaries and expert commentary on the following topics: The Man and the Myth, Napoleon and Josephine, Politics in Napoleon’s Time, and Napoleon at War. There are also interactive elements that students should find interesting, including the Interactive Battlefield Simulator: Could you win the battle of Waterloo? and video clips from the television series that this site supports. Teachers are provided with four lesson plans: Napoleon Becomes a Man of Destiny, Napoleon: Hero Or Tyrant? The Laws Live On, and Church and State. Finally, there is a discussion forum offering varied perspectives on Napoleon.

Napoleon.org
Napoleon.org is produced by The Fondation Napoleon which has as its mission the encouragement of the study of and in interest in the history of the First and Second Empires. The website is bilingual (French/English), updated daily, and includes: a weekly newsletter, – Essential Napoleon, Fun stuff (Napoleonic postcards, music, recipes, jigsaws, quizzes, wallpaper, screensaver, etc.), The Magazine (Napoleonic ‘What’s On’ events diary, Napoleonic press and book review pages, six Napoleonic itineraries, a guide to more than 100 Napoleonic ‘Museums and monuments etc., interviews, Napoleonic Directory.), a Reading Room (20 articles in English, about 200 in French, Bibliographies, Timelines, Biographies) , a Gallery including an image database (900 images) and two filmographies, a special dossier section with four mini-sites, a Collectors’ Corner, a general forum, a full-text search engine, and Foundation details.

NapoleonSeries.org
A useful research site, NapoleonSeries.org is dedicated to the study of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Napoleonic Era, and the French Revolution. This site provides access to contemporary documents and serves as a vehicle for historians to share their work.